A Time to Heal
by Sirius7
Summary: Cait's strength has held up under more pain than anyone knows... but no one can be strong forever.


A Time to Heal

An _Airwolf _tale.

By: Sirius

Rating: T, for now, though it may go up later.

Disclaimer: No one you recognize belongs to me. All of them belong to Belisarius; I've just taken them out to play for a little while, and will return them when I'm done. I do own a few OC's – Liam, Claire, and Daniel O'Shannessy. Maeve Sheehan, etc., including a few assorted scumbags. The word "gomer" and the context in which I use it are both borrowed from "The West Wing."

Author's Note: Once again, I am rather royally messing with Cait's background. Feel free to blame the series, since they never gave viewers a lot of background on any of the main characters, except String. If they don't tell viewers what actually happened, I feel perfectly free to make something up.

Legal Reference Point: This won't come up for a few chapters, but I wanted to mention it now, since it _will_ come into play. In many states (though I don't know if Texas is one of them), if someone is in the process of committing a felony (let's just call him the Bad Guy for now) and he kills someone, the charge levied for the death is automatically Murder One (general view being that the intent to commit the initial felony is there, so the death itself cannot be considered accidental, even if it wasn't part of the original plan). Example: BG is transporting a large amount of illegal narcotics (felony possession), and to avoid getting delayed – and possibly caught – speeds through a construction zone, and kills a worker. As he was committing a felony at the time of the hit and run, he would be charged with Murder One (which is premeditated), rather than any lesser charge (such as Murder Two, manslaughter or vehicular homicide). For the sake of this story, Texas will be one of the states that uses this system.

Summary: Cait's strength has held up under more pain than anyone knows... but no one can be strong forever.

_Airwolf~~~Airwolf~~~Airwolf~~~Airwolf~~~Airwolf_

A/N 2: The following conversation is what goes on in my head on a regular basis (obviously, the cookies were the deciding factor):

"Aw, come on! Work on 'Wednesday's Child!' I wanna see Hawke find Cait and get his butt kicked! Can Marella help? Please? Pretty please?"

"No! 'Recognition' first! Hawke and Cait need to talk to Dom and figure out why Cade and Dom stopped talking, and Michael needs to have lunch with Kermit and figure out how Cait knows him! Boy, won't Archangel be surprised? Please? Come on... you know you want to."

"But, but... everyone's waiting for the next chapter of 'Wolfpup,' and Xander wants to meet his dad and there will be hugs, and it's so cute..." (insert pouting muse here).

"Really, you're going to leave Apollo at the police station all day? He needs to get out and _**work**_ – you know that. Besides, Hunter needs to see Cait and do a double-take that'll make Hawke all jealous. 'Running Partners' should be first."

"Don't forget 'A Time to Heal.' You haven't even posted the first chapter of that one, yet, and Hawke needs to get slammed in the face with the emotional Cast-Iron Frying Pan of Doom, when he realizes he can't corner the market on pain." (Insert scheming grin here). "I'll bring you cookies."

And from the corner, a shy little muse speaks up and says, "But what about 'From Nightmares to Dreams'? You haven't worked on that one in _forever_." 

Now that the argument's been resolved (this time around), on with the story.

_Airwolf~~~Airwolf~~~Airwolf~~~Airwolf~~~Airwolf_

_Chapter One:_

Dom set out a few small Christmas things around the hangar, hoping to brighten the place up a bit and coax a smile or two out of String. _And Cait_, he acknowledged to himself. This was the bubbly redhead's first Christmas with them, and he'd hoped she would be even more cheerful than usual and help him drag String off the mountain every once in a while, and back to the land of the living. He wasn't sure now that she would cheer him up at all. Truth be told, since the beginning of December, Cait had been looking pretty down, and he hadn't been able to coax anything out of her that would let him know why. The closer Christmas came, the quieter Cait got. In fact, the last few days, she hadn't been saying much of anything at all, and Dom had noticed. He was pretty sure String had, too... but String wasn't saying much himself, so Dom wasn't counting on a lot of help there.

He went back to his office for a bit to handle some paperwork and wait for his pilots to show up. Cait came in first, with little more than a quiet 'Good Morning' said in his direction before she started in on maintenance checks on the Jet Ranger. To Dom, it looked like she hadn't been sleeping... at least, not well, and he wasn't sure what to do about it. All the other times he'd tried asking what was wrong, she'd said only that it would keep, and maybe she'd tell him later.

String entered next, and by the worried glance he shot towards the back of Cait's head, Dom knew his boy wasn't _that_ oblivious, after all. _It's not that he hasn't noticed, then, just that he has no more idea how to help than I do._

They worked in silence for hours, barely a word being spoken between the three until nearly lunchtime. Then, the phone rang, and Dom saw Cait _flinch_. _What the heck?_

"If that's my mother, I'm not here."

_Ouch. I'm betting that's part of whatever __**it **__is. Wonder what kind of argument she's got going with her mother now?_ Thankfully, the call was from a potential customer, not Cait's mama, but her reaction to the possibility gave Dom a lot of food for thought. _What's going on here?_

"Your mother the reason you've decided to take a vow of silence over the holiday?"

Cait turned to look at him, saying nothing – again – and letting a single arched eyebrow speak volumes for her before turning back to the Jet Ranger. _Okay... I'll take the hint, kiddo. Now's not a good time to ask. Gotcha._

"No," another voice answered from the door of the hangar, "but she _is_ the reason Cait should be _grateful_ for missing Chloe's wedding. She would have been miserable... and then David would have wanted to strangle her mom, and it would have turned into a huge mess with tons of paperwork. In general, it would have gotten ugly in a way only Irish families can manage."

"Lovely," Cait said, and Dom could see just a hint of a smile tugging at her mouth. "How many did she invite this time, Maeve?"

"Five," replied the rather pixie-like green-eyed woman at the hangar entrance. Dom's first thought was that she was _short, _his second was an entirely random musing as to how she handled the thick, black hair that fell in waves halfway down her back."There were _five_ bland, boring, and utterly _mouse_-like gomers being glared at by a fairly large number of Texas Highway Patrol officers. All of the officers, of course, knew why your mother had invited the gomers. Chloe managed well – she takes after your example there – and carried off the ceremony without a hitch. Afterward, she snagged Captain Trace for a dance and asked him to have a word with your mom... a _word _that would be something along the lines of 'if you don't cut it out, Cait won't even set foot back in the _state_, much less the house.' Things were tense, but – for the most part – quietly so."

Cait's smile was sad, now, as she closed the distance between the other woman and herself. "Maeve, she's my mother and I love her to pieces... but times like this, I don't _like_ her very much. She just has to _push._" Dom saw her shake her head and look in his direction – and String's – and then straighten up and put on that 'everything's all right' mask.

"I see I forgot the introductions. Maeve, this is Stringfellow Hawke and Dominic Santini, a great pair of guys. They keep pretending to be mean and grumpy, but they're complete mush inside. You shouldn't believe them if they say otherwise."

Dom peaked over at String, and struggled to stop a chuckle at the younger pilot's glare... while, of course, sending one of his own in Caitlin's direction. He couldn't let a comment like that pass, after all. "Aww, Cait. What'd you go and tell her that for, hmm? I'll never hear the end of it from that one," he said, jerking a thumb in String's direction.

String responded with an offended look, but was almost laughing when he said, "What is this, 'Pick on Hawke Day?'" Dom saw a shine in his boy's eyes that told him, if this was what it took to cheer Cait up, he'd go with it. From the smile tugging at her mouth, it seemed to be working.

"Why do I think working with these two is never boring?" Maeve said, laughing all the while.

"Because it's not." That fledgling smile had grown into a full, happy grin when Cait looked at her friend. Dom wished he could tell whether the smile actually reached her eyes. "Maeve... time to head to lunch. You guys want anything, as long as we're out?"

"Nah, Cait, we're good. But you never finished introducing your friend." Dom was regretting opening his mouth before he was done saying the last word, as Cait's smile suffered a swift death. Maeve had obviously noticed the look on Cait's face as well, and pulled the taller woman in for a quick hug. She broke the silence that followed by introducing herself.

"I'd be Maeve Sheehan, Mr. Santini... Cait's sister-in-law."

_Huh?_ Dom thought, confused. _I didn't think Cait had any brothers._

It wasn't until Cait spoke again that Dom realized he'd actually _said _what he was thinking. "I don't, Dom. Maeve didn't marry my brother; I married hers." She'd spun on a heel and strode out the hangar doors before Dom could get past his shock and say... something, anything to call her back.

TBC...


End file.
